Should IPL introduce All-star games like NBA?

February 23, 2018

Image Credit - Hindustan Times

The 2018 NBA All-star game weekend took place recently in the league’s mid-season break, and it was a grand festival. Witnessing the competitions that were held throughout the weekend along with the NBA All-Star game, one can’t help but feel that NBA’s concept of bringing in only the league’s best players and making them play against each other in a bunch of exciting and thrilling competitions can be very well applied to the Indian Premier League (IPL) as well. Here, we look at some reasons why there should be an IPL All-Star.

Why should IPL introduce games like NBA All-Star?

1. Two ultimate teams stacked with star players

The fundamental essence of the NBA All-Star concept is simple – to handpick the best and highest rated players of the league, divide them into two teams (based on zone or region), and watch them play against each other and baffle you with highly intense action and some magical performances.

The Indian Premier League does gather some of the best players from all around the world, but if these were to come without getting indulged in an auction process, and were divided into only two teams for a weekend of clashes, then there would have been a whole different All-Star feel to it.

Mock IPL All-Star Team

If you are still not convinced that IPL should introduce an All-Star fixture like the NBA, then let’s have a look at a mock IPL all-star team line-up. Imagine; MS Dhoni, Chris Gayle, Steve Smith, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, make-up your batting line-up, and bowlers like; Rashid Khan, Mitchell Santner, Jasprit Bumrah, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar complete your bowling unit.

A team like that would decimate their opponent regardless of wicket and weather conditions. Moving on.

2. Skills Challenges

The NBA All-Star games include; skills challenge, a 3-point shot contest, a slam dunk contest, a half-court shot competition, with the All-Star Basketball match as the main event on the night, which is followed by a grand event and an awarding ceremony, in which an MVP award (Most Valuable Player) is given to the star player of the winning team.

Now if for one second, you try and fix that into the Indian Premier League. There could be a great deal of exciting skills challenges, such as; super-over bowling challenges, super-over batting challenges, catching challenges, and what not. And the world’s best cricketers going at it against each other. Who would want to miss such action?

3. Higher viewership ratings and revenue

Watching not just your favorite, but watching the best cricketers together and play against each other, gives a joyous feeling that cannot be described well-enough in words, but I shall still delve into it. Sports fixtures which involve huge star power are guaranteed to attract huge public attention which results in higher revenues.

Such an IPL All-Star fixture is also guaranteed to register whopping viewership ratings and high revenues, as is somewhat the case with IPL already, which is why the league is being touted as world’s one of the most cash-rich T20 leagues. While the generated revenue could be used for the betterment of cricket structure and facilities in the country, it would also help popularize the sport further, making it much more accessible at the grassroots.